The Watcher dominates the latest Nielsens, while Rings of Power falls away sharply
The Nielsen numbers for October 17-23 show by just how much The Watcher dominates ratings. Last time we suggested:
The Watcher and Dahmer doing well, with other shows falling back and The Sinner season 4 making progress. We expect The Rings of Power to fall back a little and are still following She-Hulk and Andor in the chart. This will also be the first week for the (excellent) Prime Video show The Peripheral and we’d love to see (but aren’t holding out breaths) the third season of the equally excellent War of the Worlds
Let’s see what happened…
The Nielsen numbers — US original streamed shows October 17-23 2022
We add the columns marked ‘*’.
| Rank | Streamer | Series | #Episodes | Ep length (mins)* | Total Minutes (Millions) | Episode Watches* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | The Watcher | 7 | 47 | 2,595 | 55,212,766 |
| 2 | Netflix | Love Is Blind | 31 | 58 | 683 | 11,775,862 |
| 3 | Netflix | Unsolved Mysteries (2020) | 17 | 45 | 672 | 14,933,333 |
| 4 | Netflix | Dahmer (2022) | 10 | 53 | 599 | 11,301,887 |
| 5 | Prime Video | The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power | 8 | 60 | 570 | 9,500,000 |
| 6 | Netflix | From Scratch (2022) | 8 | 53 | 522 | 9,849,057 |
| 7 | Netflix | Great British Baking Show | 81 | 60 | 471 | 7,850,000 |
| 8 | Netflix | The Midnight Club | 10 | 60 | 418 | 6,966,667 |
| 9 | Disney+ | Andor | 7 | 60 | 418 | 6,966,667 |
| 10 | Hulu | The Handmaid’s Tale | 53 | 60 | 398 | 8,291,667 |
The Watcher dominates as Rings of Power drops sharply
Last week it pulled in 2,355 million minutes on its opening weekend, and The Watcher follows with slightly more in its first full week. It dwarfs the rest of the table while Rings of Power fails to hold onto the sort of audience it reach on its finale. From 1,137 million minutes, this latest total is likely to disappoint. How does it compare to House of the Dragon?
Dragonwatch
We turn to the Acquired shows for 17-23 October, and House of the Dragon has attracted a very respectable 1,013 million minutes on its 10 episodes. Anyone looking to make comparisons between the two fantasy spectaculars has to concede its a convincing performance for the Game of Thrones prequel.
What else happened?
With the arrival of some reality shows of various forms, and solid numbers for Bake Off, many of the shows we follow at CultBox have fallen away. No showing (yet?) for The Peripheral, a slight rise for Andor and She-Hulk has left the building. Metaphorically. With similar audience to last time The Handmaid’s Tale has kept a top 10 place (just) whereas Midnight Club has shed around half its viewership.
What are we expecting next?
The Netflix data suggests Cabinet of Curiosities might make an appearance as most of the Netflix slate in the Top 10 look to survive, with The Watcher at their head. We’d still like to see The Peripheral make an appearance. It looks like Rings of Power will fall further.
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